1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to air bearing sliders having magnetic heads for use with disk drives and methods for manufacturing. More particularly, the present invention relates to air bearing sliders having thin-film magnetic heads for use with disk drives and methods for manufacturing such sliders.
2. Description of Related Art
Direct access storage devices (DASD), or disk drives, store information on concentric tracks of a rotatable magnetic recording disk. A slider having a transducer or magnetic head is moved from track to track to record and read the desired information. The slider includes air-bearing surfaces configured for causing the magnetic head to fly a desired distance above the surface of the disk as the disk rotates. The magnetic head performs write or read functions and is positioned at the trailing end of the slider. Exemplary magnetic heads include first and second magnetic pole pieces separated by a non-magnetic gap layer. Generally, a coil is positioned within the non-magnetic gap layer and an overcoat layer of alumina covers the second pole piece. The overcoat layer of alumina is generally located directly at the trailing edge of the slider.
A problem with magnetic heads is that when the coil is subjected to write currents, the overcoat of alumina grows, protrudes, or expands due to localized heating. This growth or expansion causes a portion of the overcoat to protrude beyond the air-bearing surface of the slider. Such a protrusion is problematic because it interferes with slider/disk contact.
There currently is a need for an efficient method for eliminating the above-described overcoat protrusion problem. The present invention addresses this need as well as other needs.